Unit 3: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights

21 terms. Say what each one means, then open the card to check.

• Civil liberties

  Freedoms that protect individuals from the government, such as speech, religion and a fair trial, mostly listed in the Bill of Rights.

  Example. A city cannot jail a person for writing a letter to the editor that criticizes the mayor.

• Selective incorporation

  The Supreme Court's practice of applying Bill of Rights protections to state governments one right at a time, through the Fourteenth Amendment's due process clause.

  Example. McDonald v. Chicago (2010) applied the Second Amendment to state and local governments, long after free speech had been applied.

• Due process clause

  The Fourteenth Amendment's ban on any state taking a person's life, liberty or property without due process of law; the path for incorporation.

  Example. Because liberty in this clause includes free speech, a state law punishing peaceful criticism of the governor can be struck down.

• Establishment clause

  The First Amendment ban on government setting up or sponsoring a religion, often described as a wall between church and state.

  Example. In Engel v. Vitale (1962), a prayer written by New York officials for public school students was ruled unconstitutional.

• Free exercise clause

  The First Amendment protection of a person's right to practice a religion, which can clash with laws that apply to everyone.

  Example. In Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972), the Court ruled that Amish parents could not be forced to keep their children in school past eighth grade.

• Symbolic speech

  Conduct that expresses a message without words, which the First Amendment can protect like spoken or written speech.

  Example. Students who wore black armbands to protest the Vietnam War in Tinker v. Des Moines (1969) were engaged in symbolic speech.

• Clear and present danger

  The test from Schenck v. United States (1919) that let government punish speech creating a clear and present danger of harms it may prevent.

  Example. Schenck's conviction for mailing leaflets urging men to resist the World War I draft was upheld under this test.

• Prior restraint

  Government action that stops speech or publication before it happens; courts treat it as almost always unconstitutional.

  Example. In New York Times Co. v. United States (1971), the Court refused to stop newspapers from printing the Pentagon Papers.

• Individual right to bear arms

  The reading of the Second Amendment, from District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), that it protects a person's own right to keep a gun, not only militia service.

  Example. Heller struck down a Washington, D.C., ban on keeping a handgun at home for self-defense.

• Exclusionary rule

  The rule that evidence gathered in violation of the Fourth Amendment generally cannot be used against a defendant at trial.

  Example. In Mapp v. Ohio (1961), material found in a search of Dollree Mapp's home without a valid warrant could not be used in her state trial.

• Miranda warnings

  The warnings police must give a suspect in custody before questioning: the right to stay silent, that statements can be used in court, and the right to a lawyer.

  Example. A detective who questions an arrested suspect without the warnings risks having the confession thrown out.

• Right to counsel

  The Sixth Amendment right to a lawyer, which Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) applied to the states for defendants too poor to hire one in felony cases.

  Example. A state must appoint a public defender for a person charged with burglary who cannot afford a lawyer.

• Right to privacy

  A right the Court has found implied by several Bill of Rights guarantees, though the word privacy never appears in the Constitution.

  Example. Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) struck down a state ban on birth control as applied to married couples.

• Civil rights

  Protections against unequal treatment based on group traits such as race or sex, guaranteed by the Constitution and by laws.

  Example. A law banning a restaurant from refusing service to customers because of their race protects civil rights.

• Equal protection clause

  The Fourteenth Amendment rule that no state may deny any person the equal protection of the laws; the basis for many civil rights rulings.

  Example. Brown v. Board of Education (1954) relied on this clause to rule that racially segregated public schools are unconstitutional.

• Civil Rights Act of 1964

  A federal law banning discrimination based on race, color, religion or national origin in public places such as hotels and restaurants, and also based on sex in employment.

  Example. After 1964, a motel serving interstate travelers could no longer turn away guests because they were Black.

• Voting Rights Act of 1965

  A federal law that attacked barriers such as literacy tests and let federal officials oversee voter registration in places with a record of discrimination.

  Example. In the years after 1965, registration among Black voters in several Southern states rose sharply.

• Title IX

  A 1972 federal law that bans sex discrimination in education programs that receive federal money.

  Example. A public university that funds men's sports teams must also give women fair chances to play sports.

• Civil disobedience

  Openly and peacefully breaking a law one believes is unjust, and accepting the penalty, to draw attention to the injustice.

  Example. Civil rights protesters sat at whites-only lunch counters and accepted arrest to show the unfairness of segregation.

• Tyranny of the majority

  The danger that a majority uses its power to take away the rights of a smaller group, which constitutional rights and courts are meant to check.

  Example. Southern state legislatures elected by white majorities passed segregation laws that denied Black citizens equal treatment.

• Affirmative action

  Policies that consider race, sex or similar traits in hiring or admissions to make up for past discrimination or to promote diversity; courts have sharply limited them.

  Example. In 2023 the Court struck down race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina.